Don't Say It If You Don't Mean It!

Happy Sunday!

“Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world.
If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighborhood!
Not loving me means not keeping my words.
The message you are hearing isn’t mine.
It’s the message of the Father who sent me."(John 14:23-24, Message)

I read this passage in several translations and they are all Good!  You should check them out.  I use the BibleGateway App because of the numerous translations to compare and enjoy.  These scriptures make the point that when you truly love the Lord Jesus Christ, you will do what he says.  You will obey.  It immediately made me think of the movie, B*A*P*S.  In the scene where James is expressing his love for Mickey.  He tells her how he loves her, and wants the best for her.  Then she exclaims, "Don't say it if you don't mean it!"

Can't you just hear Jesus saying the same thing?  Don't say it if you don't mean it!  It's not about whether you smoke, or chew, or hang around with folks that do.  Well, at least not fully.  It's about the weighty matters.  Are you loving others?  Jesus said, "Your strong love for each other will PROVE to the world that you are my disciples.”(John 13:35, Living Bible).  Don't miss this!  He did not say we would be recognized for our attire, our blessings, or our religious habits. This current temporary situation brought on by Satan and the virus has proven that the church is not a building, but a group of people.  We were instructed to GO into all the earth preaching the Gospel.  That means everyday, not just on Sunday, we have a chance to shine.

The Apostle John wrote, "If anyone says “I love God,” but keeps on hating his brother, he is a liar; for if he doesn’t love his brother who is right there in front of him, how can he love God whom he has never seen?"(1 John 4:20, Living Bible).   Let that sink in.  People can be hard to deal with.  I know first hand.
I'm in Customer Service.  But no matter how ugly people act, we are commanded to love. 

Thankfully, God has given us His love with which to love others.(Romans 5:5).  And he reminds us that he has loved us through thick and thin.  Romans 5:6-8 says it this way, "Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him."(Message).

Love and prayers, Cynthia